The Story: Part 1 Let's Do this

It was the summer of 2000. Leslie and I were a young couple on our own on Long Island. We had friends, family and two cats. We had a cute little place in the Navy Housing in East Meadow (there were no meadows). We were happy. Except.....well.....
We travelled to a NY lake and spent some time at a lakeside cabin with two of our great friends and their two kids. It was a fantastic weekend that I will probably always remember, it was so relaxed and easy between us all. Even though, Jimmy, the youngest (I think he was around 1 at the time) wasn't quite feeling well and was cranky and not his usual cherubic self, it was good and I started to realize that I wanted that "family" thing for Leslie and I. I know that we had conversations about having kids before this point, I just don't remember them. They probably went like this, one of us "hey, are we gonna have kids?", then the other would say "yeah that would be great but not right yet" and we were cool with that. This particular trip though as we watched Jim and MaryAnne parent their kids and have so much joy in them we both realized that we were ready. We wanted them.
I still remember how it went down. We were both sunburned and sleepy after a morning of swimming and boating. A good lunch in our tummies, we headed off to while away some time in a big two man hammock that was strung up between two big trees. We lay there, talking and laughing over the things that the kids had been doing. And, we sort of both said, "Hey why not us? Let's do this." It was a particularly happy moment in my life. I still have a picture that Jim or MaryAnne snapped of us, just as we finished saying that to each other, it's a great picture and my face in it, is glowing and my smile nearly jumps out at you.
I realize now that had we spent that weekend alone or with another family, we would not have come to that conclusion when we did. I know that it was watching Jim's undisguised love and enjoyment of his kids that made Les think that he could have the same thing. I know that it was Brianna joking about "stinky ducks" with Les that helped him see there was so much more to kids than he had realized. I know that watching them be frustrated with Jimmy but still loving him and finding fun with him, made me see that it would be difficult but do-able to be a mother. I know that it was some of our conversations with Jim and MaryAnne that weekend that made us realize we had alot to talk about but, we could, and would be parents.
We just thought it would be sooner rather than later.......